in our exclusive interview the syrian president says he won't step down and warns foreign intervention will spark a global disaster. and just thirty protests in athens lead to unprecedented violence as parliament approved a new set of caught in a bid to keep greece solidly in the euro zone. but president hu jintao called on china's new leaders to make the country a major naval power as beijing begins a once in a decade communist power transfer. it's

five pm here in moscow this is art to you coming to you live with me and you saw now way our top story r.t.s. game exclusive access to the syrian president who continues to run the country from damascus in defiance of foreign calls to step down but are also slammed those calls from abroad for him to go and warned against outside intervention in syria well i'm now joined by the person who took that interview our chief sophie shevardnadze in the studio you were there just returned first of all he's painted as such an evil evil man really in the situation so clean cut really what was your impression first of all of them i know or the situation both of the man is he really who most of the media says he is and then the country the people. the first thing that really marked me is that everything is so much more complicated that people pro-trade to the press. press actually. and i will over emphasize. over and over again

it's way too complicated as far as assad goes i had a chance to talk to him maybe fifteen minutes before the interview where he's completely dominated by the press obviously because he's a very educated man he's a very pleasant man he doesn't seem to have. you know this. sickness of being a president i'm the president and everyone obeys me he's a very down to earth guy did you feel like you were i assume you took the interview in the presidential palace you went to the palace you haven't seen palace losing power of what not once you're in the palace you don't really use that but once you go outside of palace you obviously see that things are pretty bad and once we got there is a situation started to ask good even more because if there were terrorist attacks let's say once every two week or once a month in damascus then we had like two or three terrorist attacks each day that we were there in the center of the city and you could just hear the bombings i mean the rebels and the government forces fighting each other and because suburbs day

and night like i would wake up at seven and eight in the morning especially for someone who's not a war reporting i'm not used to hearing the bombs and falling asleep with the sound of the bombs that really marked me but people there you know they're they're used to it and life goes on and that really struck me and what what i think what struck me most is. the the no way out for the people that are in there they are in debt and situation even if people wanted to leave damascus or syria they would have nowhere to go just like i said by the way even if you wanted to step down i don't think you could go anywhere and we asked that in the interim they didn't have a choice like people are calling you to step down below where would you go like no country would have been except him i don't think maybe maybe iran but that's about it in terms of him as a leader i mean when you were sitting with him did you feel like you were sitting with a president who still has some control over his country and who is is you know complying with his duties as the leader of a country or. a president holed up while more is going out i think at the. this is

a man who his choice is the fact that he has no choice and he's made it very clear and even before the interview when we spoke he told me you know i never want to be president i became president of this country when i was thirty four years old and i think his whole life and time as president went by without he having a choice pretty much and now at this point he feels like it's almost as a pat as he has cancer so either you beat the cancer or you die out of it and i can just tell you that he his family is in damascus he has kids who is like nine six and seven and they go to a local school in damascus so he's making a point not pulling out his family members out of damascus without said i want to take a take a moment to listen to a piece of that interview so if we go with the syrian president. i think the prize will be an invasion if it is going. to be more than the whole world came before because if you have a problem in syria and you are the last stronghold of secularism and stability in the region and coexistence it's it will have to mean or face if it weren't for the

atlantic to the pacific and you know the implication. i don't think. it's going. to go but you do so nobody can predict what's next. i just want to say really quickly that. there were talks because i always spoke to people that weren't just working in prisons administration but people in the streets and i went out to market and bought some of my as. i asked them about a side and they thought they told me that you know he probably wanted to leave couple times but the people around you around him wouldn't let him go because for christian minority and for all white minority that would be just curse of crucifixion you know because people would just kill them or completely destroy them even if you wanted to go so he couldn't go even if you really want to leave what about the actual interview it's airing obviously friday here on our team throughout

the weekend for journalists you know you've interviewed lots of high ranking officials there's always a sort of protocol they asked to see questions before what was that like how much did you know about what you were going to ask him and how rigid was that it was very rigid in terms of when we went there first thing we did was so his press secretary who is our age she's probably thirty five she is an ex al-jazeera presenter so she knows the television stuff very well she knows what she's talking about she is hands on she is very protective of us a lot so the first thing with it she gave us a contract that we had to sign and this contract actually emerged after barbara walters interview because she want she was the first one to injury he she went there and they caved her complete freedom complete access to assad absolutely no obstacles and she recorded at the hour in something of an interview with him and then she edited it in a way that they thought was completely distorting of the president so they got very scared after that so they hats to print

a contract for everyone who goes there and we had to sign it as well as. some of the points of the contract were negotiable for example one of the one of the points that you have to give us the questions that you can ask the president and you cannot ask anything more or less so i told her like listen you know. there's nothing that i can possibly ask. to which she cannot give me an answer or hasn't been exactly and i can only ask questions and only give me answers because the obviously knows much more about what's going on than me but we gave them the main things we send them that you know. the actual questions from another point was that we could have had an hour with him but in that in that case we needed to sit down with the press secretary and edited down to the time. to the time the exact time that we were going to put on air so we prefer to have twenty six minutes sharp and put that on at it than have the interview at it with the press secretary so obviously we didn't have time to ask everything we wanted to ask but we did our

best in those conditions very very briefly you were there do you think he's going to make it through this i don't know i don't think anyone knows i don't think he knows it either right really close or not see thank you much very much for your impressions again that interview of course is going to air on friday here on our t.v. and throughout the weekend. on syria. but. given our two exclusive friday through sunday on our to our t.v. dot com. a new package of billions of euros in constant austerity measures squeezed through the greek parliament to be met by violent protests outside frustration over the disintegrating economy led to street battles between firebomb wielding demonstrators and riot police armed with tear gas or cheese peter over reports from athens. what we have seen though is anger on the streets of athens we

saw a crowd of around one hundred thousand people gather in the meet the square just behind me in front of the parliament building not quite quickly escalated into violent clashes between police and protesters in a matter of seconds downtown athens went into essentially in war zone for a couple of hours we saw molotov cocktails thrown flash bang grenades used also tear gas used extensively again here in athens as police tried to calm down protesters who are extremely unhappy by what they see as unfair measures being taken by the government now also there was one hundred people detained by police five arrests made and we're also hearing of injuries on both sides both the police and demonstrators the people undoubtedly very unhappy about what's been signed into law what's essentially happened is that politicians here in greece of voted in

order to allow the next round of austerity measures one hundred fifty three m.p.'s voting in favor of these latest austerity measures one hundred twenty eight against and there were eighteen stanchions what the new austerity measures mean though for the greek people is that we're going to see the retirement age rise to sixty seven there's also going to be slashes to pensions and wages and there's also going to be new laws that's going to actually make it easier for employers to fire their stuff now all of this comes as antonius some are asleep prime minister to make thirteen point five billion worth of say a billion euro worth of savings the reason he had to do that was he was it was demanded of him by greece's three main lenders the so-called troika they said that unless these cuts were made that greece wouldn't get its next round of bailout money that's over thirty billion euros and without that money well greece was out

of the euro essentially and they would have faced a potentially devastating the fault so that's what these new austerity measures mean they've been signed into law this is the future for the greek people now. well piling on the bad news for greeks are figures showing unemployment at a record high journalist charlie mcgrath believes the country is spiraling into total chaos we already have people killing themselves in front of parliament in greece you have people that are losing everything using hope that the last thing to go i think is going to be there since that they have anybody representing them with so far whatsoever you have this tyranny of the technocrat majority inside greece one hundred fifty three out of three hundred vote more austerity on the people i think it is they continue to lose all hope that they have any control of their own financial destiny whatsoever how can it do anything but you know digress into but potentially civil war the financial health of the country is not going to change

for the better until they realize that they are in default they're bankrupt and they tell the banks that are holding their debt and the european union and the e.c.b. and the trail that they are going to default this is what happens in the market cap their their prospects for a return to a healthy economy it has to start with them realizing that they are completely and utterly broke and start over from scratch. it's twelve minutes past the hour a look now at some world news for you at least eighteen people have been killed three separate bomb attacks in afghanistan the deadliest blast was in the helmand province when a minibus hit a roadside bomb killing ten civilians including four women and two children a second attack killed three policemen and wounded two others in the southern city of kandahar and in the east a military convoy struck a landmine killing five local troops. a prominent bahraini human rights activists

is back in court today hoping to appeal his three year prison sentence bill resign up is serving time for tweeting and participating in illegal gatherings the countries that have recently banned demonstrations after nearly two years of clashes between police and pro-reform campaigners violence in bahrain has so far killed up to eighty people with thousands being arrested provoking a wave of criticism from rights groups across the globe. just a few minutes here in our heads class over billions we look at how proposals for the european union's new budget is deepening the cracks in london berglund relations. but find out why america's top ally in the middle east is not too happy about prop obama's reelection and plenty more stories coming up.

recently protests and demonstrations of any kind were banned until further notice and buck writing a curfew as if you can't go out of your home when the government doesn't want you to has already been in effect in the country since two thousand and eleven many of the protests which are now totally forbidden were related to members of the public demanding the release of political prisoners for peace. but were also recently arrested bahrain for insulting the king over twitter wow a middle eastern country that has totally shut down any form of protest and hugs you down if you tweet about the leadership so it's pretty undemocratic to me i think nato is already fueling up ready to take action some freedom into warm right well not really if nato really cared about spreading democracy you'd think they'd be more consistent with their targets but that's just my opinion.

do we speak your language i mean some of the will not advance. news programs and documentaries and spanish matters to you breaking news a little turn to angles keep these stories. for you here. the spanish find out more visit. sigrid laboratory to mccurdy was able to build the its most sophisticated robot

which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans. this is why you should care only on the r g dog. here with r t live from moscow a major transfer of power has begun in china the country is set to appoint its new top leaders next week as part of the communist party congress which is now underway president hu jintao has called on the nation to fight corruption improve its military and keep the economy growing basing based journalist henry morton reports . president hu jintao begins to hand over the reins of power to the next generation of chinese leaders vice president xi jinping widely expected to become the next head of states now president hu he's going to stand down as general secretary at

the end of this week paving the way as i say for she to take over as general secretary and then as head of states in march two thousand and thirteen reform has been a buzzword around this congress it's been mentioned a lot in state media in the build up so you this week experts and analysts and analysts saying that china if it wants to continue its economic growth its economic engine it really needs to start implementing long stalled reforms you speak to people on the streets they're extremely concerned about the economy as well and people around the world generally will also be watching what the new leadership is doing china of course a growing economic power is now the second biggest economy in the world and also turning into something more of a world superpower. now reports. lighting the flame on the international stage building to new heights on this world. and soaring beyond its limits whether it outer space the arctic outer continental shelf or on your local

store shelves china is making its ambitions known let's see this is made in china. made in china china for cheap economic goods have translated into massive profits for china as well as criticism you know this comes amid growing concern that china is using its economic clout political leverage. different. china is very promising country. here. trying to try less than five the i.m.f. says china could surpass the us economically in real terms by twenty sixteen it may not help the countless. chinese who live in poverty but it sure makes rivals nervous china's economic clout has grown it is now the second largest economy in the world it's the second largest manufacturing exporter in the room maybe the trainees currency is playing an increasingly important role in the world economy so

there is a shift in relative economic might in the world that might has been threatened by the economic slowdown and it will be up to china's new leaders to try to reverse the trend for now they seem to be getting their way china is inching into europe to snap up ailing businesses this french vineyard is just one of the casualties. with these people they come here in the by land just like to buy a castle or jewelry on iran u.s. sanctions against oil trading with the islamic republic don't apply when you're america's largest banker. in africa china is using cash to buy clout beating western rivals in the race to exploit the continent's vast resources in its efforts to buy influence through investments have been met with an intense public backlash and countries like pakistan and building infrastructure instead of military bases has made china the preferred superpower among locals. born into

thier ok. other countries it is not like america. you know that like america. still it hasn't abandoned its military the country's new leaders are expected to continue to pour billions into its defense budget the second largest in the world this may worry pentagon planners and beijing's asian neighbors but so far china's economic might has proven more powerful than the sword the other two nations which are fighting in the words what is america what is china so america is using which is water and there is a lot of losses and china is using up these. and civilized it is no loss and if the strategy is working why change it time you speeders understand the importance of soft power. and yet understand.

to some extent and me did. more to be studied if not to be followed. for now a growing red dragon means that china's version of a new world order is here to stay you see catherine of r t moscow. but london remains worlds apart from the paymaster on the debated seven year budget after crunch downing street talks with his german counterpart the british prime minister reaffirmed he would not accept any proposed hike in spending here's our to start first with a deeper look at britain's widening rift with europe and the support for a split at home. prime minister david cameron and german chancellor angela merkel are probably feeling pretty food today after the downing street dinner last night on the menu is mushroom in spanish venison finished off with a traditional german pitting the beneath the smiles and the friendly handshake you can imagine that probably have been quite dinner conversation on the surface of it

the german chancellor is here to discuss with the prime minister the upcoming budget meeting that will be taking place in brussels but of course there are a much bigger. they most importantly the discussion about britain's position within the european union itself now the end of the meeting both sides has said that they were on the same end of the spectrum but is that really the story because of course in recent weeks here in britain we've seen the talk of a possible referendum in or out referendum whether britain should remain within the european union really kicking up again that you would only be in the one for once a break that means she doesn't look like a woman in the stuff the food. gladly unfortunately the prime minister has it like the strongest leader in recent weeks we feel that humiliating defeat in the house of commons with tory backbenchers calling for real term cuts to the budget now we know when those meetings take place britain is going to be asked to contribute even

more to the top there is going to be some tough negotiating taking place what you have here at the moment very much is a big problem when it comes to the european union at a time of austerity in the midst of a double dip recession many british people feel that the european union to be asking for even more money is simply unreasonable and you seen a very very strong reaction to that in the coming weeks ahead of that budget meeting the topic of britain's role within the european union itself is very much going to be on the top of the menu. well barack obama celebrating his presidential victory there is looking more reaction from washington's top ally in the mideast israelis openly backed obama's rival mitt romney during the campaign and many are disappointed at the democrats' real action there could lead to an unprecedented rift in the u.s. israeli relations are reports. from this.

to this it was never a secret who the israeli prime minister wanted in the white house the often public spats between his government and the obama administration of a palestinian peace talks and iran's nuclear program did nothing to advance american israeli relations and only a mosque the two leaders personal dislike for each other we are the junior partner in this relationship both men want to succeed they need to cooperate in order to succeed and i think it's not it's not an insurmountable challenge but i don't know to fix the relationship but he has some fixing to do relations between the two countries are at an all time low and most of his radio americans were also hedging their bets on the republican candidate of the roughly eighty thousand voters from israel four in five voted romney these few got up early to watch the results obama

can be harsh and could be strict with israel because he doesn't have to worry about reelection anymore and the time euro has to do with obama's tells us in many aspects because israel is dependent on america for allies and for support in the war in the international arena the pressing issue now is what is a bomb his victory mean for israel's foreign policy after all netanyahu saw in one knee and i someone here greet with on most issues including what to him is the most urgent stopping iran's nuclear program netanyahu is trying to convince the world to strike iran a position that until now obama has not supported the question is will israel go it alone in order to destroy completely destroy iran's nuclear weapons capability i think you need. many many strikes over an extended period of time only one country in the world that is capable of doing it. and i

don't think he will do it this is the united states of america and without u.s. backing netanyahu is in a corner when he was a strike back down from his warmongering neither position it puts him in a good night netanyahu took a gamble so openly favoring romney welcoming him in israel during the election campaign and appearing in republican campaign ads that one of the dice could now backfire as these radio elections quickly approach and the ten year himself will be fighting for another term in office. next on r.t. as capital account with foreign lyster that's coming up.

the stunning beauty of reindeer gracefully dancing across the arctic tundra more than just a scenic image it is a way of life for sun traditionally the net its people are nomadic reindeer herders and though in many ways they lead a simple and rustic life they are also highly skilled and organized in their trade . another weekend will be preparing for the winter and living around more and more every sport in the summer is depending on the rest is on the day we found this particularly camp they were settled near the coast of the tata see here for families work together to manage nearly a thousand reindeer herding reindeer is not just a job for the men it's people and back they say it's a part of their entire culture heritage and way of life and back they say that they can use almost every single part of the reindeer to help them survive. their. deer is a means of transportation if it's a source of maryland. our equipment. clothes and covers for the outside in the sun

of us. but life in the tundra is harsh and so before winter hits many of the children are helicoptered to the center of the district and not even marked for boarding school. in the knesset students learn different languages utilize modern technologies through specialized grant programs and even learn arts skills all within a protected environment the schooling audience was founded and named for and. another scientist who wanted a better way of life for his people but even with the most progressive ideas in education many that say they don't want to trade the modern life for their beloved . i have returned to the tundra and i actually like it here if you're outside there's fresh air fresh water looks at the site you can see deer it's a joyful sight. a sentiment that hopefully ensures that russia's northern reindeer will have caretakers for generations to come.

good afternoon welcome to capital account i'm more in leicester here in washington d.c. busier headlines for wednesday november seventh two thousand and twelve u.s. president barack obama won the election last night and after he did he said this is . what makes america exceptional or the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth. bonds that's right to raise your we bond that is what makes america exceptional the ability to issue all of these bonds in exchange for the global reserve currency that allows the government to spend despite running trillion dollar deficits but what happens when that bond holding us all together is no law.